and established brand names in Malaysia. It epitomizes the telecommunications sector of the country.
Telekom Malaysia Berhad
Telekom Malaysia, more fondly known as TM is a government-linked company which is responsible for the development and growth of the telecommunications of the country. It is a public-listed company in Bursa Malaysia under the stock code 4863. TM’s headquarters is at Telekom Tower in Kuala Lumpur.
Background and history
TM is one of the oldest GLCs in the country. It started out as the national telco company where it offered fixed line, radio and television broadcasting services to the entire country. This started in 1946. With impending changes in the telecommunications industry and market demands, TM has since moved out of the conventional offerings, now becoming the largest broadband services provider of the country. On top of that, TM still provides fixed line services as well as more current offerings like network services, pay-TV and data services.
Evolution of TM
Besides the usual run-of-the-mill services, TM has changed tremendously over the years. It recently started offering LTE (Long Term Evolution) services while going through a rebranding exercise with its Unifi services. As of 2014, TM has more than 2.2 million subscribers in its broadband services.
Consumer perception
In terms of market branding and presence, TM is known throughout the country as it is literally available in every state and province. As it is one of the major offerers of broadband services having started the internet services in Malaysia, customer confidence has always been very high. The challenge ahead for TM is in its offering of mobile services which is currently dominated by some very established players like Maxis, Digi and Celcom as well as a string of new players including XOX and U Mobile. This might be harder than TM would expect.
